"whats wrong, why is it wrong. 29th June 2005
I was typing and typing and typing. And i realised it was too long to be posted as a comment to Noh's comment. So here goes. I blame it on the heavy lunch that mom packed and sent over.

1.IMHO its all got to do with the general asian mentality. Everything is measured in monetary terms. Asset accumulation. The need to show that one has the material fruits of labour. And when the race started, anyone staying out is left out to fend for themselves. Those earlier days when we were younger, most of us had a carefree life. Yes there was sufferings. We didnt take things too seriously (on hindsight perhaps we should have studied harder/smarter). And yet we somewhat turned out ok. We're not robbing or killing or raping, amongst other vices. And i could like to think most of us arent croonies!.

We had top students who we were proud of. I still remember back in 1983 i was watching the national news at second college in kg baru. They were announcing the STPM results. Only 5 students in the country achieved 5As! ONLY 5!! And one of them was from English College. Someone we knew. There was a feeling of pride. This guy achieved glory for himself and the school.

Now, we have hundreds or thousands getting straight 5As! In some cases tens of them within a school! Someone please re-assure me that the young ones are getting much smarter nowadays. Perhaps its easier to score As nowadays? I have no idea. But once society starts to judge its students based on the distinctions that theyve obtained, then theres no turning back. Its a race. Who cares whether the students have gained knowledge. As long as they have the As, theyre entitled for rewards.


If the Govt. was serious about walking the talk, they will publish the names of everyone who has obtained scholarships and their results. And for heavens sake can we have a standardised system for the form 6. Why create room for doubt by having a separate matriculation system and then equating both. I went through 2 months of form 6 and immediately knew there was no way i was going to excel, or pass for that matter. And i was lucky enough to hop over to the U and enjoy the benefits of the semester system. You get tested every few weeks or months. Unlike the STPM where you get tested for one and half years work!

2. While some in govt. knows the importance of english, there are also those who play the politics game. To remain popular with the older rural populace. The very ones who keep saying the national language must be given priority, are the very ones who are not writing enough to broaden our knowledge base. The amount of material in english is in abundance. Perhaps we should introduce a system whereby right from the primary school, one has got to pass english and malay language subjects.Fail either of the subjects and you stay in your level. No promotion. Perhaps then there will be people taking languages seriously. But then again, knowing the malaysia boleh spirit, more often than not, most students will get the answers from their nice teachers beforehand.

3. I think its any govt.'s duty to provide education at low cost to ALL its citizens.The buku pinjaman scheme was good. I benefited from the scheme. Parents saved lots of hard earned money by not having to buy kilograms of books every year! The helping hand should stop at that. Facilities are given. But standards must be maintained. If the product of students are not up to standard, fail them. Let them repeat again. Our problem seems to be that some quarters think its the govt.'s duty to provide education, pass the students and then give them jobs that pay good money! :O And in the same breath, they want the country to be a centre of education!

Sad to say, i think its the govt.'s policy to make it hard to fail substandard students. The professional institution that i am a member of had a feedback session once, a few years ago, with a local university. We gave constructive criticism. Students lacked good command of english and practical knowledge. And the U reps admitted, for every student that they fail, they need to justify the failure. There was lots of questioning by the higher ups. And having been a product of the place, i know as a fact its so very difficult to fail, unless one is there looking for failure. I was on that verge once, but probably some kind hearted souls facilitated my moving on.

Bottom line will be, those needing help, must be helped. Those who can stand on their own two feet, must do just that.

4. CVs that shows lots of job movement is indicative the person will probably treat every job as a stepping stone. There are some here in JB who may be quite good at their jobs, but in the social circles they've been labelled as job hoppers. Its to their detriment. Its not like as though at every hop they climb up the ladder. Performing well, and job hopping vertically is a very positive thing.

5. Everythings about having cash in the wallet NOW. Even is something is wrong, more often than not people will just keep quiet instead of bringing the matter to your attention. Theres lots of pride and sense of belonging when the company pays them top dollar and 5 digit bonuses year in year out :)) Have a slowdown, and they consider jumping ship!

6. Agree with you, Noh. Top 1% deserves the scholarships. Bond them to serve the country in return. Perhaps everyone else can get study loans which will be converted to scholarships if they get top results? And for heavens sake, if people who take loans dont pay, just go after them! The govt. dept. mentality has just got to go. There was a case of a guy passing and able to pay back within a year, instead of paying monthly for years. He wrote and asked to pay back in one lump sum! So admirable! And our administrators tell him, NO! He has to pay in installments!!!!! This mentality amongst administrators in the civil service is so prevalent. The best arent running the country, sad to say.

7. On race issues. Honestly speaking, i think i was living under a coconut shell during the school years at English College. Its either that or things were not so bad those days. If youre good, youre rewarded. If youre good, youre selected for sports team in school. Or if you talk too much, you get selected to the english debating team, even if you suck big time. (sigh.. still have nightmares. Losing to SDJ, and me not playing my part still annoys me. Was that the time i first met Kuljeet the pilot? My memory fails. Need to check with him. We were the opposition to the topic of co-ed schools are better, or something to that effect. Damn. EC had girls in form 6. Some were nice to look at [the days when girls wore short skirts and white blouses to school] We were in form 5 and wanted girls in the school, and we were asked to oppose the motion!. How to win lah. But then again SDJ was an all boys school, and didnt have girls at all. Easier for them to argue hypothetically! ).

Come to Gurney Road, and oops, i was in a different world. Everything was segregated. And its then the issue hits straight in the face. Self realisation? Yeah, perhaps. The indians hanging out with themselves. The malays hanging out with themselves albeit in two camps.. PAS and the moderate. The buddhists hanging out in their corner. And the Christians hanging out at their corner. Everyone knew where they had to hang out. Was never comfortable at KL. Was used to a mixed race environment all the way till the end of Form 5. Knowing lots of classmates went overseas on federal scholarships that were never made known to me, changed my perspective of the world that i lived in. Living in the U, reinforced that perspective.

Coming out to the work world, it became apparent the civil service was the domain of one race. Even the state economic developement corporation was off limits. That left only the private sector. And i couldnt talk any of the chinese dialects! (saying the chinese words that i knew at that time, didnt qualify me to claim knowing the language). I have to admit that i was lucky an uncle knew another uncle at the top of one of the govt. departments and arranged an introduction. That person was nice enough to write a letter of introduction and i was offered a position at my current place. 17 years later, i think ive been very lucky and made the most of the opportunities that came my way.

We try hard to maintain a fairly balanced work place with no single dominant race. And everything is tied down to performance. The good ones get rewarded. Naturally in the course of doing business, the race issue props up every now and then. And more often than not, we tend to lose out. It doesnt help either that the company doesnt have the benefit of having an english or international name with associate offices all over the world. (most dont bother to realise even those with those names, are basically run by locals of similar standing). So much for not judging the book by its cover.

Perhaps we need a Race Commission. On equal rights. Then we may stop hearing of discriminations in the civil service as well as the private sector. Elaborate lah, madnoh. We're all adults whut :) I've long endured the snub of being left out of conversations all because some decide to talk in a language thats not english or malay. :))

8. Gone are the days the employer can call a staff into the room, and "screw" the person verbally. Doing that only results in the employee leaving and you receiving a notice of being sued for abuse. The management has had to change. More diplomacy. More kindness and polite words. This is a good thing. Where the staff dont repent or change, give sufficient notice and ask the person to leave. But i would say most are still hard working, with constant supervision. Being humans, most employees will always find opportunities to take breaks.

9. Rich, well-to-do parents. They build the fortune, the children spend it. The grandchildren finish the fortune. Thats a chinese saying right? In most cases its true. As usual theres always exceptions. Children who take advantage of the opportunities they get and excel. Our old friend Ben comes to the mind. Well to do, and he excelled. He's a cancer specialist now i think. I should have called him long ago.

10. The internet has indeed become a major distraction to the productive world.Cant help it cos its addictive. Blogging though i do only when am free. Chatting was the killer. Was so addicted. There were times i would come in early and yak and yak and yak online and not get work done. Well, everyones entitled to make mistakes :D On the plus side have learnt a lot. On work, on IT, on people, on relations. err and on things that turn on people. lol. Have managed to meet up with so many, from all over.

To effect change, the government should start the ball rolling. Start recruiting the best brains. The most capable. Stop asking for the race or religion of applicants.Promote based on merit. On capability. Not on who the applicant knows, or the ball-carrying the person has does. Show to the world and the private sector particularly theyre being fair to all. And ensure that the civil service does its job. To serve the public and not serve their own pockets!

And on a final note, to scrap the "get back our best brains from overseas" program. It wont work. Theyre already earning top bucks overseas. We should concentrate on keeping our best brains in the country. Singapore has been tapping our schools from form 1 onwards. We have to stop that. Reward deserving students early without them having to ask. And at the end of the day, perhaps, the country will reap the benefits of these actions. We become better. And happier.